Tom Beard Former Executive VP
Indian Manufacturing: A View From The Shop Floor
A recent visit to Indian metalworking shops reveals a nation poised to elevate its position in global manufacturing.
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New Turning Center Design Aims At Maximum Turning And Milling Rates
Much of machine tool development is based on an incremental approach to design. In such cases, each "new" design is more a refinement of the previous generation of proven technology than a reinvention of the machine type and its purpose. With Mori Seiki's new NL series of turning centers, however, the builder was
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The Software Around The Machine
Walk into Mori Seiki's Digital Technology Laboratory (DTL) in Sacramento, California, and you might think you've instead wandered into a West Coast extension of the United Nations. The facility is dedicated to software development and engineering for the machine tool builder worldwide, and the makeup of the staff certainly speaks to diverse needs of a global market.
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Learning Online
Internet-based training provides a new tool for metalworking managers looking to build the technical knowledge of their employees. (2002 Guide To Metalworking On The Internet)
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What Do Online Marketplaces Really Deliver To Job Shops?
Online custom manufacturing marketplaces really can deliver a stream of RFQs to metalworking job shops. The question is, how do job shops actually convert the opportunity into real business? (2002 Guide To Metalworking On The Internet)
Read MoreChanges Yet To Come
When the market value of Internet router maker Cisco Systems passed that of Microsoft a few weeks ago, some marked the event as emblematic of the “post-PC” era to which we are headed. This is not to diminish the benefits that PCs have brought to our individual desktops, but rather to note that the value of stand-alone computing pales in comparison to the power of networking on a global scale, made possible by the Internet.
Read MoreBuying Online, Part Two
You may recall a few months back when I related a personal experience with e-commerce in this space and asked for your thoughts on how it might work in the metalworking community. Thanks very much to all who replied.
Read MoreThings Change
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things can change. So I read with great interest the results of the recent World Machine Tool Output & Consumption Survey.
Read MoreWords From The Top
I recently had an interesting discussion with an executive who’d come to newfound insight on power and influence. He’d given up a very high position in a sizeable company to follow a more entrepreneurial path, and he was now working in a very small startup enterprise with a largely collaborative and egalitarian decision making process.
Read MoreAre You Going To Buy Online?
I wanted to buy a computer for my daughter. So we went to four different stores and looked at all the models on display to determine which was the best deal.
Read MoreTeamwork, Creativity And Leadership
What's more important, teamwork creativity or leadership? Bob Lutz, former president of Chrysler Corporation, expressed some interesting thoughts on that and other subjects at the recent fall meeting of AMT—The Association For Manufacturing Technology. Lutz holds a variety of refreshing and occasionally cranky opinions on management that can make mincemeat of the more trendy views of the day.
Read MoreChanging Some Things With The Times
I recently had the opportunity to visit several of Germany's leading machine tool builders. It was interesting to see how these companies are dealing with recent challenges, yet maintaining their finer traditions.
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